White House says tariffs 'going forward' as talks continue

Jill Colvin, Matthew Lee and Luis Alonso Lugo, The Associated Press
Published Friday, June 7, 2019 1:12AM EDT
Last Updated Friday, June 7, 2019 12:18PM EDT

WASHINGTON -- The White House says U.S. President Donald Trump's threatened tariffs on Mexico are set to take effect Monday as planned even as negotiators try to stave off his latest push aimed at forcing the U.S. ally to stem the flow of Central American migrants into the United States.

"Our position has not changed," White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders told reporters Friday in Ireland before Trump headed back to Washington. "The tariffs are going forward as of Monday."

Talks resumed at the State Department, and Trump has received regular updates from Vice-President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during his trip to Europe. Sanders said officials had "made a lot of progress," but not enough.

The initial 5% tax on all Mexican goods , which would increase every month up to 25%, would have enormous economic implications for both countries. Americans bought $378 billion worth of Mexican imports last year, led by cars and auto parts. Many members of Trump's Republican Party and business allies have urged him to reconsider, citing the potential harm to American consumers and manufactures.

Trump has nonetheless embraced tariffs as a political tool he can use to force countries to comply with his demands -- in this case on his signature issue of immigration.

White House officials appeared to deliver mixed messages as they awaited Trump's return to the White House. Economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Trump could delay the tariffs, while Marc Short, Pence's chief of staff, stressed that "there's still a long way to go."

"When the president lands, they're going to present him with, basically, the state of affairs and then the president's going to make a judgment about next steps," Hassett told Fox Business Network. He cited "a lot of positive movement" in recent days.

Either way, Trump appears poised to invoke an emergency declaration that would allow him to put the tariffs into effect, according to people monitoring the talks.

"You should anticipate that happening today," Short told reporters, adding that, "if negotiations continue to go well," Trump "can turn that off at some point over the weekend."

During the first round of talks Wednesday, the gulf between the countries was clear. Mexico offered small and so far undisclosed concessions; the U.S. demanded major action. The U.S. once again pressed Mexico to step up enforcement on its southern border and to enter into a "safe third country agreement" that would make it difficult for those who enter Mexico from other countries to claim asylum in the U.S. Mexico has long resisted that request.

Mexico surprised U.S. officials Thursday by saying they would commit to Pence's requests.

Trump officials have said Mexico can prevent the tariffs by securing its southern border with Guatemala, cracking down on criminal smuggling organizations and overhauling its asylum system. But the U.S. has not proposed concrete benchmarks to assess whether Mexico is complying, and it is unclear whether even those steps would be enough to satisfy Trump on illegal immigration, an issue he sees as crucial to his 2020 re-election campaign.

Pence said Thursday the U.S. had been "encouraged" by Mexico's latest proposals, but that it would be "for the president to decide" whether Mexico was doing enough to head off the tariffs. Pence said that, among other issues, negotiators had discussed a potential agreement to make it difficult for those who enter Mexico from other countries to claim asylum in the U.S.

Short said there had been some "receptivity" to the idea. But, he said, "I think there's a long way to go in that particular piece."

Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard has said his country agreed to deploy 6,000 National Guard troops to its border with Guatemala to help control the flow of migrants, but that an agreement had yet to be reached.

Beyond Trump and several White House advisers, few in his administration believe the tariffs are a good idea, according to officials familiar with internal deliberations. Those people worry about the negative economic consequences for Americans and believe the tariffs -- which would likely spark retaliatory taxes on U.S. exports -- would also hurt the administration politically. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Republicans in Congress have warned the White House that they are ready to stand up to the president to try to block his tariffs, which they worry would spike costs to U.S. consumers, harm the economy and imperil a major pending U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal .

The Department of Homeland Security announced Wednesday that U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions of migrants illegally crossing the border hit the highest level in more than a decade in May: 132,887 apprehensions, including a record 84,542 adults and children travelling together and 11,507 children travelling alone.

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Associated Press writers Zeke Miller, Paul Wiseman, Lisa Mascaro, Darlene Superville and Padmananda Rama in Washington and Jonathan Lemire in Shannon, Ireland contributed to this report

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